Mr. Eugene V. Rostow, Under Secretary of State for
Political Affairs, addressed a conference on "The Vatican and
Peace" at Boston College, March 27, 1968. The Hon. Paul Findley,
Member of the House of Representatives from Illinois requested that the
address, together with that, of the Very Rev. Archbishop H. E. Cardinale,
Apostolic Delegate to the United Kingdom, be placed on the RECORD
because of "the very timely contributions to the discussions of the
Vatican's contribution to World Peace through diplomacy.
"Archbishop Cardinale's Address will be published in our next issue
[June 6, 1968].

My subject today is fascinating because the
activities of the Church touch almost every country and nearly every
aspect of human life. The Vatican is not only the focal point of a vast
spiritual and cultural community, and the visible symbol of a living
system of ideas and values; it is a coordinating secretariat for a
far-flung multinational bureaucracy. Any discussion of the Church's
international role needs to consider both its spiritual and temporal
dimensions. In both the Vatican plays an important. role in
international political life.

The Pope, in his primary role, is the spiritual head
of the Roman Catholic Church with its 400 million communicants who
regard him as the earthly vicar of Christ. For centuries the Church
(Roman Catholic) has exerted a profound and incalculable spiritual and
cultural influence in many parts of the world, helping to shape men's
minds, and the motives which govern their actions. Our own Western
culture is inextricably entwined with Catholicism.

The Pope is likewise a temporal leader—the
head of a government—whose
officials are spread throughout almost every country of the globe. The
Pope's government is sovereign only in its tiny Vatican enclave. Indeed,
in a modern nationalist sense, the Church hierarchy is not a government
at all. Its whole existence dates back to an age that predates that
narrow concept of national sovereignty which has so bemused our modern
era. But perhaps the day will come when the logic of interdependence
will make such international bodies, limited in their functions but
independent within them, an increasingly prominent part of the process
of government in the world.

At any rate, although the "sovereign"
jurisdiction of the Papal government is minuscule, its direct political
influence everywhere is considerable. It has unrivaled sources of
information through church universities, schools, monasteries, convents,
and other institutions. It deals directly with the most fundamental
elements in the life of many communities: the protection of the clergy
in their mission, and the faithful in their education and worship
involve the Church in highly practical diplomatic matters throughout the
world. The Vatican maintains formal relations with over 50 nations, and
informal relations with many others, including our own.

As the oldest continuing international organization
in the world today, the Vatican has a well-deserved reputation for
diplomatic expertise. It possesses a knowledge of foreign countries and
their government which cannot be matched, in many respects, by any
national state. it derives its additional diplomatic force from its
attitude of benevolent neutrality, which neutrality is an important
aspect in the Vatican's diplomatic position and effectiveness. Although
such a course sometimes arouses criticism, it does often allow the
Vatican to play an important role in conciliation.

This is hardly a new role. It goes back to the
civilizing mission of the Church in the Middle Ages. In today's world
feudal violence has been replaced by nationalist and ideological
violence, but the conciliation role of the Church continues. All through
this warlike century, Popes have struggled to end the fighting and to
bring reason and charity to the affairs of nations.

In addition to this age-old role of peacemaker, the
Papacy has in recent years pursued a number of specific policies
designed to encourage a more favorable climate for the peaceful
diplomatic settlement of disputes. Recent encyclicals have severely
limited the old concept of a just war. (Pacem in Terris: Pope
John). Everyone remembers Pope Paul's dramatic address before the U.N.
General Assembly; and the same strong support for "an effective
world authority" continues in the recent encyclical "Populorum
Progressio".

Another important theme in recent Papal teachings is
the urgent need for disarmament. Pope John, again and again, argued that
the balance of armaments could never be a secure basis for peace, that
stability could come only from mutual trust, Pope Paul in Bombay in 1964
appealed to the world to divert the immense resources now devoted to
armaments to a great fund for relief of suffering around the globe.

The Papacy, in short, has made itself a major
spokesman of the universal yearning for peace. It has used its moral
prestige to mobilize public opinion in behalf of peace and its
diplomatic apparatus to encourage conciliation.

The Church, although it is a highly skilled
international bureaucracy with impressive resources, derives its great
influence, above all, from the great ideas which it embodies, shapes,
and expresses—ideas which affect
public opinion throughout the world.

Although in some quarters it is fashionable to
denigrate the role of ideas in history (ideas, it is said, are
rationalizations for the love and hunger that genuinely rule human
affairs), the argument is really a misunderstanding of history, a
misunderstanding of the nature of ideas. Ideas, the great ideas which
are active forces in. history, are not simple logical propositions. Such
ideas—as equality or the principle
of self-determination—carry an
inexhaustible fund of meaning. Love and hunger will doubtless always
influence the human animal; but what men love and what they hunger for
will always be determined by the ideas that shape their imaginations.
Institutions depends for their vitality and direction upon the ideas
that inform them. Without these informing ideas, the life sap of an
institution disappears and the remaining structure stands condemned.
This is essentially true of all organizations with essentially moral
purposes: political parties, universities, systems of law. Above all, it
is true of churches.

And so it is not surprising that the head of an
institution with the immense spiritual vitality of the Catholic Church
should exert his greatest influence as a teacher of the public
conscience, as a mediator of the essential ideas which inform his
Church. Thus the Pope, in today's world, has become a powerful voice in
the conscience of the West, reminding us all of the humane aspirations
which dominate our civilization and determine its direction. In our
world the Pope is the champion of the suffering and the discouraged,
constantly reminding us of the immense load of misery the majority of
men carry through their lives.

In the recognition of the need for a stable world
order, and for development as the necessary means of assuring this
stability, the policy of the Vatican, and the foreign policy of the
United States since the days of Point Four and the Marshall Plan, are
ONE.

Great as is the role of the Pope in the in matters
mentioned above, it is only a fraction of the real influence of the
Roman Catholic Church in shaping the modern world. The Church is a
living community, lay and ecclesiastical, dedicated to the moral and
spiritual education of Catholics and indeed of modern Western society in
general. The Roman Catholic Church has a special place in the education
of the West. It is one of the great transmitters and mediators of the
whole moral and spiritual wealth of our past into the present-day world,
a mission which transcends sectarian divisions and particular formal
moral and theological beliefs. The Church's teaching mission calls for
not merely preserving the ideals and beauties of the past, but
vigorously translating them into an idiom for the modern world.

Like any great institution that has spanned
centuries, the Catholic Church has had its moments of weakness; yet with
a vigor and capacity for renewal which must impress even the unbeliever,
the Church has always found within itself the resources to carry on its
mission in a changing and often hostile world.

Everyone who loves our Western past cannot but
rejoice in the renewed vitality of the Catholic Church in recent years.
It is not rejecting the old truths but adapting them to the intellectual
and moral conditions of the modern world. The Ecumenical task is the
great work of the Catholic Church today. Men of all faiths will profit
from the process of renewal which is one of the dramas of a lifetime and
will be, I am sure, a powerful force both in the realms of ideas and in
that of social action during the generations before us.

As a historian, I have always found a majestic sanity
in the Catholic tradition. The Catholic vision of reality is remarkably
balanced. It is a church that believes not only in heaven but also in
hell. It knows that there is evil in the world as well as good. It has
seldom neglected to give the Devil his due. While the Church exhorts its
children to act like angels, it knows that not many would or could do so
for long. For the Church has never forgotten that we live in a fallen
world, and that while human institutions cannot succeed in creating a
good society without love and charity, neither can they function without
law, justice and power. It accepts the great principle of rendering to
Caesar the things of Caesar. Hence, Catholicism which is such a powerful
voice of conscience in today's world, also continues to prepare men for
fortitude in the face of adversity and courage in the face of evil. This
is the sane and balanced need in our world today.

Taken from:
L'Osservatore Romano
Weekly Edition in English
30 May 1968, page 4

L'Osservatore Romano is the newspaper of the Holy See.
The Weekly Edition in English is published for the US by: